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 The Snowman is a genius Follow @TheDocLOP QUESTION OF THE DAY: Are you more likely to watch Smackdown, avoid spoilers, and generally become more interested in the other WWE TV show now that it takes place on a Thursday night? Pros Daniel Bryan and Kane have a meaningful match on television with focused commentary. Earlier today, I was listening to the Steve Austin podcast featuring Wade Keller and they were talking about the commentary in WWE being more like talk radio with wrestling going on in the background. Tonight, we saw a match that the announcers took seriously and treated it as important. They never strayed from the key plot points or got too far ahead of themselves. Why that is, I'm not exactly sure, but I liked it. Austin and Keller also talked about the lack of meaning in many TV matches, which is something that I've been championing for a long time. TV matches aren't treated as if they matter, so I skip most of them. Daniel Bryan's return match was given some hype and had a well-developed back story from the events of 9 months ago. It was not a great match by any stretch, but it felt like something was at stake and, as such, it was far more entertaining and investing than a random match between two guys doing moves just because they've been given the TV time. Paul Heyman and Seth Rollins ramped up the hype for the WWE Championship match. The Royal Rumble in 10 days may be a two match show, but what a two match show it is turning out to be. Following Raw's extremely entertaining contract signing and the knowledge that next week's Raw is to be a Reunion Show instead of a traditional go-home PPV build, I was pleasantly surprised to see a wrinkle added to the proceedings with a gem of a segment between Heyman and Rollins. Heyman had a fire lit under his rear from the physical shots fired at his client earlier in the week and cut his usually engaging style of promo. That alone would have warranted a hit. Then, Rollins came out and continued to show why he earned my 2014 Wrestler of the Year award, breaking from the repetitive mold of his recent Authority-supporting promos to verbally assault his primary target's advocate and quite nicely insult the Beast Incarnate in the process. Just when it seemed like we might see the predictable attack on the weakling, Heyman interjected a point that seemed to rattle the usually in control Money in the Bank winner, suggesting that Brock Lesnar could one day protect the future of the company once Heyman deemed that it was time for the future to begin. In a week full of strong TV talking segments, this was the finest of the lot. Cheers to the Architect. Cheers to the Advocate. Cheers to what is shaping up to be a very interesting title match. Since I've not been intrigued at all by the Lesnar-Cena renewal that has pretty much dominated the WWE title scene since last July, that would make Rollins-Cena-Lesnar the first WWE title match that I care about since Daniel Bryan's last defense 9 months ago. That's got to be a record in my fandom. Bray Wyatt looks like a legitimate contender to win the Royal Rumble. He joins a cast of characters that my colleague, Maverick, wrote about a few days ago, all of whom seem like potential winners of the year's second biggest match. This, to me, is shaping up to be the most unpredictable Royal Rumble in a long time. Wyatt was on his game tonight. He's been very hit or miss for me these last several months, as what he says is always intriguing but it's not necessarily always engaging. Tonight, he had a simple, clear cut message: “I'm going to win the Royal Rumble.” It was hidden amongst his usual creatively delivered jargon, but it was there. It's not always there. Special ring introductions for Intercontinental Championship matches are awesome. Just had to throw that out there since I haven't written much on current events since last summer. I think it makes the title look far more important. It's nothing new, but it means something. Cons The Total Divas Division have halted the growth of the Divas Division. On “The Doc Says” podcast a few months ago, I spent an entire show praising the 2014 mid-card divisions for stepping to the right direction. This week's Smackdown featured a random match between some of the various females that I zoomed right past. It was a case in point of the problem that the division has had for two months. Once AJ lost her return match to Nikki Bella, WWE randomly dropped the story between Nikki and Brie that was one of the biggest plot points – love it or hate it – of the entire summer. From Paige's shocking win post-Mania to AJ's return and Paige's heel turn to Nikki emerging as a solid heel with the combination of Total Diva notoriety and increasing skill, the Diva's Division was on a nice little role. That momentum is tanking by the week as we're seeing a reversion to a pattern of “the girls are on Sundays,” so we don't need to do anything but tag matches until the season ends. It sucks. Kane joins Big Show as WWE's most un-interesting legend. On Raw's Pros and Cons list, I mentioned how boring Big Show had become. Kane is the exact same to me. As much as I enjoyed that there was a match that mattered on this show, Kane has looked to me like he's phoning it in for about two years. He's like the guy at the gym where I play basketball that was All State in high school but hasn't been in high school since the late 1980s. He's old, slow, and a ball hog. He's a nice guy and I wish him no ill will, but I wouldn't be disappointed if I got there next week and he had decided not to show up anymore.
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